Berkshire Unlikely to Copy Apple's Dividend Bonanza

Few investors expect Berkshire Hathaway to join Apple in paying a dividend.

Updated from 2:25 p.m. ET to include mid-day share prices and additional data throughout

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- It took about a year after Steve Jobs passing for Apple ( AAPL) to become a significant dividend paying stock, and heading into Berkshire Hathaway's ( BRK.B) annual shareholder meeting, investors should expect the same from the cash-gushing Warren Buffett-run company.

Although Buffett articulated a path toward a dividend in Berkshire's 2012 shareholder letter, few investors or analysts expect any dividend announcement while the "Oracle of Omaha" is running the investing conglomerate.

A dividend may be a natural part of Berkshire's transition to a successor. But that may be years down the line, given Buffett's apparent good health and enduring vigor, evident in recent years' large investments such as participation in a $28 billion deal for Heinz (HNZ) and taking a leading stake in International Business Machines ( IBM).

Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares were gaining 1.3% to $163,000 to extend a 2013 advanced to 21%, as the shares reached new record highs.

"It's our job to increase intrinsic business value -- for which we use book value as a significantly understated proxy -- at a faster rate than the market gains of the S&P. If we do so, Berkshire's share price, though unpredictable from year to year, will itself outpace the S&P over time . . . We will stick with this policy as long as we believe our assumptions about the book-value buildup and the market-price premium seem reasonable," wrote Buffett of the firm's policy to reinvest its cash stockpiles instead of paying a dividend.

"If the prospects for either factor change materially for the worse, we will reexamine our actions."

At the beginning of the shareholder letter, Buffett lamented an underperformance of Berkshire's book value growth relative the S&P 500. He fears the firm's five-year book value growth rate may underperform the S&P 500 for the first time ever.

"To date, we've never had a five-year period of underperformance, having managed 43 times to surpass the S&P over such a stretch. But the S&P has now had gains in each of the last four years, outpacing us over that period. If the market continues to advance in 2013, our streak of five year wins will end," Buffett wrote.

In 2012, Berkshire's book value per share increased 14.4%, behind the S&P 500's gains of more than 15%.

Dividends will be more about estate planning than Berkshire's performance says Russo of Gardner, Russo & Gardner.

"I didn't think that he conclusively supported a case for a cash dividend in that discussion," Russo says of Buffett's letter, and instead highlighted discussion as relevant to Buffett's planned donation of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Regular cash distributions, for instance dividends, would help Buffett's divestiture of his Berkshire holdings qualify as a charitable donation.

Russo also downplays comparisons between Berkshire's dividend policy under Buffett and that of Apple under Steve Jobs.

"The thing with Apple is they just had such a prolonged period of over-earning and under-investing. Cash just built by the weight of gravity," says Russo. Berkshire, he says is different in that much of its cash is derived from a cautious stance on underwriting insurance risk.

Gardner, Russo & Gardner is Berkshire's tenth largest shareholder with a stake of nearly $800 million in the company's Class A shares and over $200 million of Class B shares, according to Bloomberg data. Russo says Berkshire holding's represent about 11% of the firm's assets.

Topics such as succession planning for the 82-year old Buffett and cash returns to investors by way of share buybacks and dividends often loom over Berkshire's annual meeting.

"I suspect that a dividend is inevitable . . . It is probably more palatable for that sea change to be done by someone else," Shields adds.

Under Tim Cook, the successor to Steve Jobs at Apple, the iPhone-maker has transitioned from being dividend-less to the top payer of dividends in corporate America. After issuing $17 billion in debt to finance a dividend boost, Apple is expected to pay out over $11 billion in cash to shareholders this year.

The move helps to placate shareholder angst on Apple's dividend policy, however, it's unlikely the company's co-founder Steve Jobs would have accepted such a move.

"I don't think there is any chance that Berkshire will pay a dividend while Buffett is running Berkshire and I am happy with that," says Berkshire investor Whitney Tilson of Kase Capital. Tilson notes $1 in capital reinvested into Berkshire's operating subsidiaries or by Buffett and his lieutenants Todd Combs and Ted Weschler is far superior to any after-tax distribution.

"Buffett is very likely to be running Berkshire for another five years," Tilson adds.

The consensus among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for Berkshire Hathaway to report a first-quarter profit of $3.3 billion on revenue of $42.2 billion, compared to earnings of $3.0 billion on revenue of $39.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012.

Berkshire Hathaway opened Friday trading at nearly $163,000 a share, a new record for the company.